~ …the eternal dreamer

Musical Monday

This post comes courtesy the great VJ. She was the one who gave me the idea. Thank you, Gurujee! 😛

Every era had a few singers who you’d associate with that period. Or may be, it was Music Director specific. Viswanathan-Ramamoorthy thrived on TMS, PBS and P.Susheela. Raaja saar’s favorites were SPB, Mano, Malaysia Vasudevan, S.Janaki and KS Chithra. Then came ARR who didn’t quite believe in confining his music to a few singers. He kept (keeps!) introducing singers after singers, some of them who butchered Tamil (Yes yes.. Udit Narayan wonly. Crie.) but most of them were brilliant. Karthik, Shankar Mahadevan, Hariharan, Shreya Ghoshal, Harini, Anuradha Sriram, Suresh Peters, Naresh Iyer, Benny Dayal, Unnikrishnan, Minmini, Shahul Hameed.. Oh where does this list stop. Sigh.

Today, with the advent of so many new Music Directors, there are just too many singers. Too many! And so I thought, I’ll list a few new singers who are my favorites.

Shakthisree Gopalan. Although she’s been singing from 2008 (TIL that she sang ‘en uchi mandaila’ from Vettaikaran!) her real break came with Nenjukkulla from Kadal. I really like her Nee Naan from Madras (although I have a soft-corner for that film ‘cos of Karthi!) and her Kadhal Arai onnu from Vayai moodi pesavum. Her range is just phenomenal. Today, am posting that jam session of Nenjukkalla with ARR. It is one of my go-to videos when I am down.

Neeti Mohan. My introduction to Neeti Mohan came very late on listening to Mona Gasolina from Lingaa. Such powerful vocals she had. Then she came up with the soft and beautiful Neeyum Nanum from Naanum Rowdy Dhan. That’s when I went back and nondified ‘Jiye Re’ from Jab Tak hain Jaan and was mesmerized. My latest favorite of hers is this – Kohila from Ko 2. Whattay!

Swetha Mohan. I think I’ve already written here about how much I like Swetha. Like mother like daughter only she is. For me, she stands so close to Shreya Ghosal. Such a beautiful voice. She’s been singing from time immemorial but still I love her so much and so she’s in this list. 🙂 Her Innum Konja neram (from Mariyan) and Yaarumilla (from Kaviya Thalaivan) are so so awesome. Today I’ll post an old song of hers. Oh Maha Zeeya from Tamizh Padam. Gibberish as lyrics but oh-so-beautiful melody by Kannan.

Abhay Jodhpurkar. This fellow’s voice is seriously ppaah level only. His Moongil Thottam (from Kadal) and Vinmeen (from Thegidi) have already been oohed and aahed in this blog. Today, I will post one of his lesser known songs. In fact this song is not even featured in Abhay’s wiki page! :O Odum rayilai from Oru oorla rendu raaja. That album from Imman is very underrated and so is this beautiful melody by Abhay. Listen off!

SathyaPrakash. This world and its cousin already knows how much I love this guy’s voice. Although he’s sung quite a few songs earlier (po nee po remix version from 3 is a good one too!), his big break came in the form of ARR’s ‘Chinnanjiru rahasiyame’ bit from OK Kanmani. I was breaking my head for a full five minutes whether to post this song or his recent ‘Paaruruvaaya’ from Raja’s Tharai thappattai because both are equally brilliant. Finally, decided to post both. Heh.

Sid Sriram. This post came into being only because of Sid Sriram. VJ was telling me yesterday how much she was waiting for the Thalli Pogathey single from Acham Enbadhu Madamaiyada. So, we started discussing Sid Sriram’s songs. I love his voice but right from Adiye (from Kadal) he’s been singing (or getting to sing) only blues/gospel kind of songs. I know he’s trained in this genre but I thought may be he’s being stereotyped to sing such songs. In I, it was Ennodu nee irundhal. In NRD, it was Ennai Maatrum Kadhale. And now, Thalli Pogathey. Is it just me or do you find them similar too?

Whattay lovely post Maya! 🙂 I can come back to your posts on Music and forget the world around me 🙂 I am yet to hear Paaruvaaya and yes, for once Anirudh decided to use someone else’s voice. Sigh, I am super sick of his voice these days – what with singing all songs himself.